SO LATE, SO SOON: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, by Carol Moldaw, and THE CASANOVA CHRONICLES & OTHER POEMS, by Myrna Stone, are both now available.

VENISON, a book-length poem by Thorpe Moeckel, is now available.

We’re looking forward to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Denver this month.

If you are planning on attending this annual literary event, come visit the Etruscan table (listed under Wilkes University). There will be an Etruscan reading on Thursday at 3:00 PM featuring Jennifer Atkinson, Bruce Bond, Michael Lind, Carol Moldaw, and J.D.Schraffenberger. Wilkes will host a reception on Thursday at 7:00 PM.

We like to share author news as much as we can via this blog. New technologies allow us a new opportunity to share author readings and discussions in new ways, such as through podcasts. For example…

Please enjoy this podcast of a reading and discussion of an H. L. Hix poem, forthcoming in POETRY MAGAZINE.

For more news and information about poet H. L. Hix and his work, take some time to explore his author page.

Check out this thought-provoking essay by Troy Jollimore on H. L. Hix’s INCIDENT LIGHT in the March/April 2010 BOSTON REVIEW.

From the jacket: INCIDENT LIGHT is a biography: not an ordered account of the facts of a life, but an invitation into the dad’s devotion, the mother’s passion, the father’s honor, and especially into the daughter’s own embracing of her experience, newly understood. INCIDENT LIGHT testifies to the many lives that converge on one life to lend it beauty and mystery.

Etruscan Press is proud to announce that TOUCANS IN THE ARCTIC by SCOTT COFFEL has been selected as this year’s winner of the Norma Farber First Book Prize by The Poetry Society of America. Established by the family and friends of Norma Farber for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition in 2009, the Norma Farber First Book Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the country.

Toucans in the Arctic has been called “an inspired truant from any number of poetical schools.” In this lyric case study of tumult and tranquility, the poet, tour pamphlet in hand, wanders through the national park of the psyche, noting surfeits of beauty and ruin as he scrambles across the eerie landscapes of identity and marriage.

Of Toucans in the Arctic, Suzanne Cleary writes, “Of wide reference and deep thought, of language taut and somehow new, these are 21st Century poems of joy, rage, erudition, wry humor, monumental tenderness. You will remember the day you discovered this book.”

Tara Caimi, a Wilkes MFA grad and last year’s Etruscan design intern and this year’s professional Etruscan book designer, got some good news on the writing front: a chapter from her memoir was accepted by THE MAGUFFIN. Well done, Tara. In addition to her memoir, Tara is currently at work on designing two forthcoming Etruscan books, CORONOLOGY by Claire Bateman and FIRST FIRE, THEN BIRDS: SELECTED POEMS OF H.L.Hix. She’s a woman of many talents!

We’re delighted to offer the first “Wilkes Etruscan Prize” in recognition of our partnership with the Wilkes low-residency Creative Writing Program.  The prize is open to current Wilkes Creative Writing students.  Here’s the scoop:

“Nothing attested, everything sung,” says the poet H. L. Hix. In poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, translations and literary criticism, Etruscan publishes books that emerge from an impulse thrumming  through every genre: the yearning to make words sing. With the Wilkes Etruscan Prize, we invite the Wilkes student community to join us in this multi-genre celebration. Send us one page: your best page, in any genre.It can be beginning, middle or end. It can be prose, script, or poetry. Send us a  page that sings.  The winner will receive a complete library of Etruscan books, a one-year subscription to new titles, and a $100 honorarium. In addition, a professionally designed broadside of the winning page will be produced and distributed at the June Residency. The Etruscan prize will be judged by Etruscan author and Wilkes Advisory Board member, H. L. Hix. Please send all submissions by Word attachment to books@etruscanpress.org. The prize is open to all current Wilkes graduate writing students who will graduate in or after June 2010.

Just back from the Wilkes MFA residency week, an intense funferall of seminars, readings, workshops, films, plays, and unscheduled screeds. The craic was mighty. Hosted by the tireless Bonnie Culver and assisted by the peripatetic Mr. Jim Warner, we weaved and slid through the week and landed more or less safely, but not unchanged. We were delighted to unveil the new website at the banquet, along with preview’s of Tara Caimi’s design of THE CASANOVA CHRONICLES by Myrna Stone. Other highlights include a ‘can-you-top-this’ sex theme in Sunday’s faculty reading; a film on James Jones featuring Mike Lennon, John Bowers and Kaylie Jones in their salad years, and a comic impression of Dr. Lennon himself by Matt Hinton, to close the banquet ceremonies. I hope we all made it home. May we not outlive ourselves, and a safe journey.

Etruscan Press is pleased to launch our newly remodeled, virtual quarters. We hope you, as an author, reader, or friend, find our redesigned website easy to navigate, full of information, and even a little fun. Have a look around and feel free to make any comments or suggestions.

During the first week or so of the site being live, there will be some ongoing work, but we didn’t want to hide behind our reshelving sign any longer!

Now, on to some personal notes. This website redesign was part of my MFA publishing internship at Wilkes University. I am so proud and happy that I was able to make this contribution to Etruscan Press. As someone who works by day in eCommerce and social media, I was thrilled at the change to use this technology hat in my other world, the literary world. I must thank fellow MFA student and Etruscan design intern, Tara Caimi for her contributions to this project. She helped shape the vision for the new site early on, as well as provided her design talent to the graphic elements of the site. And, also to the entire Etrsucan team for being patient for the unveiling. And, a big thank you to programmer Lindsey Ranaldo, who speaks code as her first language, for implementing the site design and doing all those behind the scene things that only programmers can do.

-by Donna Talarico,  Etruscan Press Web Consultant